amokarts

Thursday September 17, 2009 New Logo for a ministry under consideration writing and more.

After being in New Orleans and seeing how much can be done on a relatively small amount of money, I have come to wonder what I can do to help some of the causes that are near and dear to my heart. I came up with this idea called Art4Change but unfortunately the name was taken. The new idea is called ArtMAD (Art Makes a Difference) Not totally sold on the name yet but the idea behind it is a simple one, I make art on video just like I have been doing except instead of the art hanging on my walls or collecting dust, I auction the pieces off on ebay and donate some of the proceeds to charities like St. Bernard Project, Brethren Disaster Ministries and some other things like Blood Water Mission. In addition I would go places and do art messages and then auction the piece created to support charity. I don't know where this is all headed and I might change the name but that is the general idea. The logo is the creation for the day, though I also did a fair amount of writing this morning for the expanded swine flu project which is actually gathering some steam. Have I mentioned lately how much fun it is to serve the Lord with Art? Well it is.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009 MCPC Blizzard of Blessings Poster
This morning, I polished off a poster I have been thinking about for quite some time. I did some of the drawings earlier in the week. This piece is a real labor of love for me and my prayer is that it would be part of a very successful campaign. I'd like to give a little background. I don't know that I was always pro-life, but in the 13 year gap between my two sons, two miscarriages pretty much cemented the position in my mind. There was a time where I was a radical about it. I was a died in the wool republican because of this position and spent a great deal of time pushing people to vote republican as a result. My politics, my faith and my position were all pretty much tied together and at times, I got pretty ugly.

Somewhere along the line, something changed. Oh I'm still pro-life and I wish there would never be another abortion, but I started to get pretty disenchanted with a lot of what I saw in the pro-life community, especially that which relates to the church. I remember taking my son to a Promise Keeper's event and having to shield his eyes so he wouldn't have to see the eight foot posters of mutilated babies operation rescue had posted outside. I saw Rock for Life's Abortion is Homicide t-shirts at the music festivals and I began to think, "What if someone here has had one?" Where is the message of love and grace and forgiveness that Jesus died to give us? I couldn't find the love in the movement or the political rhetoric.

Once this had happened, I began to look at things differently. I began to see the same people who want to march in the streets in front of a clinic would also whine about welfare. There is a disconnect there, somewhere as well. We want a young unmarried girl to keep her baby but we don't want to help her feed it. I decided there has to be a better way. There has to be a way to be pro-life and still show people the love and grace of Jesus as we are commanded to do. What came out of this is a desire to be practically pro-life. In other words we want to show love and grace and we want to put our money where our mouths are and step up to help. We are a very small church without a lot of resources, but we have found a ministry in our area (Mercy Crisis Pregnancy Center) with a similar vision a vision to do more than just talk and we are in the early stages of coming along side them. One of their first requests was for Christmas gifts to be handed out to young moms for their children. Blizzard of Blessings came out of that.

Monday and Tuesday, September 15, 2009, Video on the Mural Project and more pigs.

Early this morning I finished the video on the reflections and posted it. Please take a moment and watch it and if you'd like to be involved in a similar project contact the folks at the St. Bernard Project and Brethren Disaster Ministries. It was written and the narration track was recorded yesterday and the video compiled this morning. Other than that I have spent some time finishing a few more pigs I drew while on my mission trip for the swine flu project. I have 30 of these in all to do, so you'll probably be hearing a lot about pigs for the next few days. I can't wait to share this project which should help some kids to take the steps to avoid Swine Flu. I will post the link as soon as everything is finalized and my client posts it. To God be the Glory.

Saturday September 5 to Sunday September 13 Disaster Relief, a mural 4NOLA and a whole lot of pigs

Well as it turns out my mural sketch was not appropriate for what the folks at the St. Bernard Project were looking for. That's to be expected on the first round, so the next round of sketches began. We decided to go with happy people working on a construction site. It started by sketching some folks building painting and other such things. Sunday was a travel day and I completed numerous more sketches on the plane. The evening held a little more sketching as well as our orientation for what to expect out of our disaster relief experience. Monday brought our orientation for the St. Bernard Project and it was there that the final thought came to be realized. They have a new program called 4NOLA and when I saw the logo for that project, I had the final step: Instead of all my happy workers working on a house they were going to be building the 4NOLA logo. That new design was the winner. We spent the day working on the house of a lovely woman named Miss Deola and in the evening I did the sketch.

Tuesday brought the first day of painting. In the morning the staff at the St. Bernard Project and I hung the plywood ground I would be painting, I went and bought the paint at the nearby Home Depot, rolled a coat of primer on and started to sketch. I will be posting a video of the process such as it is (My camera quit through the best part of the process). Tuesday evening after working on the mural, I received an email saying that one of my Swine Flu projects is in the final stages of approval, which pretty much programmed the rest of my sketching for the week, drawing pigs, lots and lots of pigs.

Wednesday brought the completion of the mural which I must say came out quite nicely. Then I drew a few sheep and more pigs. Thursday and friday returned me to the construction site and more pigs and sheep.

Saturday was unusual but great. In the morning I composed my thoughts on the week into a coherent message for Sunday. I booked a late afternoon flight and most of the others went out early so I had nothing to do. Fortunately my new friend David Young was there for the month and he offered to take me to the French Quarter to see the art galleries. They were something to behold and I was very blessed. I came away from this trip more determined than ever to not just be more creative but to redouble my efforts to use my art, my work and my life to make a difference. Then I went to the airport and drew more pigs. :D

Sunday was a great day, I got home, went to church preached and then went home. I began generating the graphics for a new outreach our church is doing with the local crisis pregnancy center called Blizzard of Blessings. I did not complete a lot of pieces this week, I didn't have access to photoshop, but I did a lot of work that will prepare me for a few weeks worth of creations. I hope this post blesses you.

One last word. You will be hearing a lot more about this trip in the weeks to come. Suffice it to say that it as a very transforming trip for me. I really encourage everyone to go on a trip like this. There is nothing like serving others in need. You don't need a lot of skills, just a willingness to serve and learn. If you would like to make a similar trip, contact the http://www.stbernardproject.org/v158/ or Brethren Disaster Ministries.